Macron has finished up and have the video presentation and then there is going to be a lot of pressure on our president to really knock it out of the park and ground this historical service into some of the challenges of today. steve: i understand they are presenting the legion of honor award right now at this moment. let s take a look at that. [speaking french] [speaking french] [speaking french] giving these very prestigious
Such a more, i don t want to say professionalized. that s a wrong word. steve: volunteer now. pete: more bureaucratic army that in the past because of the nature of the draft and everyone volunteering to go, you might have three or four boys or a bunch of men from the same town in the same unit because they were batched together. a more bureaucratic military doesn t really treat it that way. so it s highly unlikely that you would have one or two from the same town or from the same family in the same unit. you also don t have the same eat ethos. young men walking around town 1943 people would ask why are you not there? they would lie about age to go. ainsley: i do believe it would happen now. pete: it could. ainsley: after 9/11 some people enlisted. pete: i pray that s the case. i also fear the education that that man received is quite different from the education
Before the thousands gathered there today in normandy for the 80th anniversary of d-day, which happened 80 years ago today, a great invocation by that member of the armed services and then we just heard from. brian: secretary djou. steve: secretary of battle monuments commission and certainly no battle monument bigger than normandy. ainsley: pete joins us now, pete hegseth who has fought for our country valiantly along with all of these men that we re seeing sitting in the audience. pete, hard to believe this is 80 years ago, many of men were 18, 19, 20 years old. pete: emmanuel macron comes on. thought we were going to take the speech speaking in french. remind that all those boys that stormed the beaches of europe, we think of the commonality of the united states and europe, but it was a far place. those men right there had never met, didn t speak the same
Martha, as we watch this, and we are reminded what happened 80 years ago today, there in normandy, where so many thousands of americans just ran into essentially a buzz saw. 50,000 germans waiting for them. and killed so many. martha: absolutely. i would just point out you were talking earlier about the ronald reagan speech which happened at the 40th anniversary. this is a real book end. they recognized at the white house then this would be the first time a 40th anniversary many of these men were retiring from their jobs and might be likely to come to this reunion. and now you have 80 years after the. steve: martha. martha: after the storming of the beaches. yes. steve: pardon the zuption interruption. emmanuel macron has shifted to english. martha: absolutely, let s hear it. great generation. [speaking french]
steve: the 80th anniversary of d-day. 1:00 in the afternoon in france. we are awaiting remarks from president biden who is in normandy along with world war ii veterans and other world leaders as well. lawrence: so they are gathering to commemorate the historic invasion that led to the defeat of the nazis in europe. brian: all right. today the world will pause. will pause to honor the u.s. and allied forces. look at this video. who stormed the beaches of normandy in this day in 1944 and to remember the 73,000 allied members who lost their lives fighting for freedom. ainsley: gosh. peter doocy joins us now from the beaches of normandy. peter? peter: and president biden said to one of the d-day veterans here today you saved the world. and another one of the veterans joked to president biden don t get old. so, even though this is a very solemn occasion on hallowed ground, it has been a series of very jovial conversations with
Eisenhower decided june 6th, which happens to be your birthday. you wouldn t possibly be born if it weren t for our soldiers. pete: exactly a free country like we are today. if you have ever heard live machine gunfire just one machine gun. steve: not aiming at me. pete: aiming at anybody. can you imagine the echoing of multiple in pillbox and grenades and artillery and to have the fortitude and courage of that generation to charge to charge an open beach, which is fully covered? and then a cliff. it s unbelievable. lawrence: looks like the president of the united states is making his way to the stage. president macron is also there. pete, real quickly as we prepare for the president to make his speech here, these veterans some of them over 100 years old. some in wheelchairs, but i m looking at some of them standing. and they had their hands saluting to the flag, what does that mean to you right now as we witness this as the president
And french president make their way to the stage. pete: ask yourself do we deserve these men? are we living worthy of what they did? it s unclear right now. but they remind us of the best of us. and we salute them today. god bless them. we are not here without them. [bell tolls] brian: emmanuel macron speaking first. followed by the president. video presentation and then our president will speak. and then we are going to hear taps. 21-gun salute and flyover. steve: meantime because this is such a solemn affair. let s just listen.
Success that saved the world and all of those crosses there for a reason. without that wave of american boys in an opportunity preponderance up. i would love to hear it. he talked about what this operation would mean to the world at the time before it happens. happened. steve: interesting thing as you look live at normandy france today where it s a little after 1:00 in the afternoon, the weather is beautiful. and operation overlord, ainsley pointed this out a little while ago was not supposed to happen on this day originally. but they had a different day but it was bad weather. and eisenhower and everybody else were relying on forecasters who were not particularly accurate back then. pete: no fox weather back then. steve: no fox weather they staked, essentially the survival of civilization on that weather forecast. ainsley: pete, it was supposed to be on june 5th and
Awards. martha? martha: this is a stunning moment. this is obviously a very prestigious award. i have watched people receive the french legion of honor award prior to this. and, you know, this is a very highway of speaking of the relationship between our two countries and at this point it was a bond that was extraordinarily strong. steve: who are they presenting them to? i mean they could give them to any one of the 150 survivors who are there today. [applause] martha: indeed they could. i m not sure who this gentleman is i m trying to see what is on his sleeve. clearly, this is a very important moment as i said i have seen a number of world war ii veterans receive these awards and they are a thank you from the french government and, you know, you talked about the french government s stance now in these villages in normandy and there is president biden
steve: i googled this to figure out who is receiving this. and amongst the recipients, a british columbia second world war veteran who landed in normandy 80 years ago presented the award. josjoseph. other canadians start of the liberation. lawrence: president of the united states is giving them all challenge coins. martha, i m struck by all these gentlemen in wheelchairs, their willingness to still to want to stand as they get this award. i m struck by that. martha: i noticed that too. one of them struggling to get up. martha: absolutely. you know, these are proud, strong, men, and they will tell you, you know, that they are pretty tough. and this is a very beautiful moment for them. and as you mentioned, steve, the recognition of the canadian